A LONG HAUL THROUGH TIME

BRIDGING THE HILLS
The Guiness Book of Rail Facts and Feats calls the KSR the greatest narrow-gauge engineering feat in India. Construction on this section began in 1901 and the line was ready by 1903 despite the harsh terrain, which made tunnelling and building bridges a Herculean task. The KSR has 988 bridges, comprising almost 3 per cent of the total length of the line.
One of the striking features of the railway is the use of multi-arch, gallery-style bridges over the ravines. Says Section Engineer Sandeep Khullar, “The depth of the valley meant that wider bridges were required. Since making wider bridges would have been uneconomical, British engineers decided to go in for multi-tier arch bridges, with the arches taking the weight of the train and transferring it to the pillars.”
The 97.4-m-long and 19.3-m-high bridge no. 226 between the Sonwara and Dharampur stations is one of the greatest examples of arch-gallery bridges on the section. Constructed in 1898 with stone and lime mortar, this is the longest such bridge on the KSR, with 32 arches of different spans. “The fact that bridges like these stand tall even a hundred years after they were constructed testifies to the engineering efficacy of their constructors,” says a Northern Railways official. Bridges 493 and 541, between Kandaghat and Kanoh, are other examples.

TUNNEL TALES
One of the most fascinating stories about the KSR relates to the construction of a tunnel near Barog. With a length of 1143.61 m, tunnel no. 33 at Barog is the longest tunnel—and the straightest stretch—on the line. The original plan was to dig a two-km-long tunnel and an engineer named Colonel S. Barog was commissioned for the task. The engineer, after whom the small town is named, began tunnelling from both ends only to find midway that he had made a gross error in calculating the alignment. This lapse attracted a fine of Re 1 from the government. Barog felt so humiliated that he first shot his dog and then himself. Locals believe Barog was buried somewhere near the incomplete tunnel, which can still be seen barely a km from the completed one.
The other story is about Baba Bhalku, a local saint who is believed to have led the British engineering team, marking out the points for laying tracks with a stick. Legend has it that it was with Bhalku’s help that Chief Engineer Harrington completed the tunnel in 1903.

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